TRAIN enthusiasts are bidding to bring a Victorian steam locomotive, created in the North-East, back to life.

The Class G5 Locomotive Company has been formed by a group of North-East men to build a full-size, working replica of a No1759 G5 Class 0-4-4T locomotive, built in Darlington between 1894 and 1901.

The consortium will build the engine from scratch and hopes it will eventually run on restored Victorian railways in the region, including Weardale and Wensleydale.

At the weekend, the first piece of metal was cut for the locomotive's boiler in workshops at Great Northern Steam, in Darlington.

The boiler will be built using modern welding techniques to help ensure it has a long life and to meet modern testing standards, but the locomotive will be true to the original design as far as possible.

The G5 Class was designed by Wilson Worsdell, chief mechanical engineer for the North Eastern Railway.

All 110 G5 Class 0-4-4T locomotives were built in Darlington and were mostly used on Sunderland to Newcastle and South Shields trains, as well as on lines in the Wear and Tees valleys.

The locomotives continued to work on branch lines for the London and North Eastern Railway after it was formed in 1923, and British Railways after 1948.

After diesel traction came in during the Fifties, G5s were withdrawn from use, with the last locomotive of the class taken out of service in December 1958.

Ironically, most of the locomotives met their end at a scrapyard in Darlington.

Dr Mike Wood, chairman of the Class G5 Locomotive Company, said: "This is a momentous occasion - the construction of the first G5 to be built since 1901 is under way.

"As much of the locomotive as possible will be built in Darlington and the North-East, carrying on the proud traditions of the region which brought the practical steam locomotive to the world."

The project begins as another group of enthusiasts, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, is close to finishing the first steam locomotive built in England since 1960. The Tornado, which last week underwent successful boiler tests, is being constructed in Darlington's Hopetown Lane works and will hopefully be working by September.